Baseball in Wartime Timeline

French White, shortstop with Anniston in the Southeastern
League and former baseball captain at the University of
Chicago begins training as a flying cadet at the Naval
Reserve Aviation base at Glenview, Illinois.

May
16

With the Allies on
the defensive in France, President Roosevelt asks Congress
to appropriate $2.5 billion to expand the Army and Navy.

June
10

The Italian
government ends its neutrality and declares war on France
and Britain.

June
17

Hugh Bedient Jr, son of the former major league pitcher
and an excellent college pitcher at the University of
Alabama, is killed while serving with the Army Air Corps
when two twin-engined bombers collide above a residential
area of Queens, New York.

July

Tar
Heel League umpire Stephen Dobos volunteers for service with
the British Royal Air Force but is rejected because he has
no previous flying experience.

July 31

The PONY League's James Gaynor is the
first umpire from organized baseball to enter military
service in WWII. Gaynor will become a captain based at 5th
Army Corps Headquarters, Camp Beauregard, Louisiana.

September 16

The
Burke-Wadsworth bill (known as The Selective Training and
Service Act of 1940), is passed by the Congress of the
United States, becoming the first peacetime conscription in
American history. The Act requires those men between the
ages of 21 and 35 register with local draft boards. The Act
states that no more than 900,000 men can be called in any
one year, and after a year of service draftees would then be
enrolled in the reserves for ten years.

October 8

The
Cincinnati Reds clinch the World Series at Crosley Field
with a 2-1 win against the Detroit Tigers in Game Seven.

October 16

16.5
million men register at 125,000 registration offices
throughout the country on National Registration Day in
accordance with the Selective Training and Service Act.
Every registrant is given a number between 1 and 7,836,
which is the highest number of registrants any draft board
is permitted to carry.

October 29

Brigadier General Lewis B Hershey, the deputy director of
Selective Service and the man who set up the system of 5,500
draft boards in civilian hands, presides over the first
drawing of draft numbers to determine the order in which the
first 800,000 men who had registered on October 16 should be
called up for training.

October 30

Fred Price, first baseman with Clinton in the Three-I
League becomes the first minor league player to enlist when
he joins the Army.

November 5

President
Roosevelt wins a third term as President of the United
States, defeating Republican candidate Wendell Wilke.

November 18

First
30,000 selectees are called into military service. Most
major league baseball players are safe from draft.
Joe DiMaggio has draft number 5,342.

November 25

Bill
Embick, outfielder with the Harrisburg Senators of the
Interstate League, is the first minor league player to be
drafted.

December 12

Billy Southworth Jr, Toronto Maple Leafs’ outfielder and
son of the Cardinals’ manager, enlists in the Army Air
Corps.